Williams - p. 3 
Sympatric with A. fuscoauratus in its cis-Andean range is another 
species referred to the group, A. ortoni, a stockier species which, in 
contrast to most fuscoauratoids, occurs outside the forest, 
In western Amazonia A. trachyderma is sympatric and sometimes syntopic 
with A. fuscoauratus in shaded forests. 
The fuscoauratus group is differentiated enough to imply there has 
surely been more than one invasion. All appear to be trunk or trunk-ground 
anoles, 
The remaining South American anoles are without obvious Central American 
relatives, though they may extend from a larger South American base into 
Panama, All except onca (and recently described annectens - see below) are 
here associated in a single group, less because of confidence that they 
belong together than for lack of clear grounds for separating them, Three 
are restricted to trans-Andean South America (gracilipes, granuliceps and 
bitectus). Two extend from Panama into northern South America, tropidogaster 
(an edge species) to Ecuador west of the Andes and in the Northern Tier to 
western Venezuela, auratus (a grassland species) likewise to Ecuador west 
of the Andes, also in inter-Andean valleys but in the Northern Tier reaching 
to the Guianas and in Amazonia reaching the south bank of the Amazon in 
Brasil. The last species of the group, A. chrysolepis (cf Vanzolini and 
Williams, 1970), has a wide distribution in forests throughout Amazonia and 
the Guianas, but not to the coastal forest of Brasil or the trans-Andean 
area, It Lives on the ground or the lower trunks of trees, 
The remaining species group centering on Anolis (Tropidodactylus) onca 
is believed to be closest to A. chrysolepis (similarities in posture and | 
display) but exhibits a morphological difference (partial or total loss of 
the anole infradigital pad) sharp enough to be appraised as worthy of group 
distinction. A. onca - an anole without infradigital pads - has a restricted 
distribution in arid areas near or along the coasts of Colombia and Venezuela, 
The newly discovered second species of the group, A. annectens, is at present 
known from a single specimen with the imprecise locality 'Lago de Maracaibo." 
Nothing is known of the ecology of annectens but onca occurs on thorn bushes, 
matted vegetation or on the ground in very arid, mostly coastal localities. 
In addition to Anolis annectens, three further new species of South 
American anoles are described in a paper in press. At least eight more 
require description and it is clear that this is not the end of the story. 
The South American anoles remain poorly known. They are nowhere abundant 
(especially by West Indian standards) and it will clearly be a long time 
before the local species are all made known, Even in the West Indies they 
are still being discovered, 
Williams has begin a series of papers (two presently in press) which 
will figure and briefly characterize all known South American species, It 
is his hope that with this first necessity taken care of there can be an 
approach for South American anoles to the degree of sophistication of study 
now possible for the West Indies. 
